Egypt: Two Dead in Clashes Between Military and Protesters

Two protesters killed by gunfire in clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters.

By Elad Benari, Canada

First Publish: 12/16/2011, 10:20 PM

Two protesters have been killed by gunfire in clashes that broke out on Friday between Egyptian soldiers and anti-military protesters.

A youth activist told The Associated Press that she saw the bodies of the two protesters and accompanied them to the morgue at a Cairo hospital. She claimed that both had gunshot wounds.

According to AP, the clashes have been raging since late Thursday after military police stormed a sit-in camp that the protesters have held outside the Cabinet building for the past three weeks, demanding the ruling generals surrender power. At least 99 people have been injured, including broken bones and gunshot wounds, the Egyptian Health Ministry told AP.

The report said the soldiers were beating women with sticks and hurling chunks of concrete and glass onto protesters from the roof of the parliament in a resurgence of turmoil.

Several women protesters cowered on the pavement as military police beat them with truncheons and long sticks, AP said. Another woman was seen bring dragged away by her hair by soldiers.

Plainclothes and uniformed security officers were seen throwing slabs of concrete and stones on protesters from atop the parliament building, according to state TV footage and videos and photos posted by protesters on the internet. Protesters threw fire bombs and rocks at the security officers, lighting a part of parliament on fire and chanting “Down with the military.”

The clashes began on the same day that Egyptians headed to the polls for round two of their parliamentary elections.

The selection of a new parliament in Egypt is a three-stage process, with the second round taking place in Giza, Luxor, Aswan and Ismaila on Thursday.

In last month’s first poll, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory, winning about 40 percent of the ballots.

The once-outlawed Islamists’ Freedom and Justice party had won 34 seats in runoff elections, and its more conservative Al Nour Salafi party garnered another five seats, according to the group’s website.

The latest violence in the country has even hit the country’s new parliamentarians, according to AP.

One activist who won a parliament seat in the first round of elections told the news agency military police beat him with sticks on his torso and arms.

He added, “So long as Egyptians are being humiliated and beaten on the streets, that means the revolution has not reached its goals. Taking to the streets will continue. The people elected us so that we don’t get beaten in the streets. We will not accept this again.”

Dozens of people died in clashes that took place between the military and protesters in November, just days before the first round of elections.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)